Those Who Will Believe

"As you are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us… so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me…" Whenever I read or hear this sort of passage from John’s Gospel I always feel a little like I’ve just witnessed a shell game. I, no, you, no, us, no, them. Which cup is the holy pea under? There has been such a verbal shuffling, it is hard to know where we are at the end. So I’m going to pick out a few phrases from this morning’s Gospel and hang on tightly them.

Here’s the first phrase. "Jesus prayed for his disciples and then he said, ‘I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word." Those who will believe in me through their word. And here’s the second phrase. Jesus is still the speaker, of course. "They may be one so that the world may know that you have loved them even as you have loved me." You have loved them even as you have loved me. Jesus’ disciples are loved by God in the same way and the same quantity as God loved Jesus.

This morning’s reading from the Gospel of John is the culmination of a long passage in John known as Jesus’ Farewell Discourse. In the very next verse after the conclusion this morning’s Gospel, Jesus and his disciples cross the Kidron valley and enter the Garden of Gethsemane, a location, John tells us, also familiar to Judas, Jesus’ betrayer. The stage is set. The farewell discourse includes teaching and reminders to the disciples. Jesus reviews the events and significance of his earthly ministry and also offers instruction and reassurance about the time to come when he will no longer be physically present with his disciples. We are in that time now.

The farewell discourse concludes with prayer. Jesus’ prayer. Jesus is speaking to God in this passage. But the disciples are present, listening and included in this prayer. They are brought into this inter-communication, this communion, between Son and Father. And it is good that they are listening, because Jesus has an agenda specifically for the disciples slipped into the words of this prayer.

As a light-hearted aside, this slipping of a personal agenda into a prayer reminds me of a scene in the Sound of Music. Maria is praying and the children are there with her. I can’t remember the specific dialogue or circumstances, but Maria, hands folded, praying heavenward, speaking to the Lord, says something like: "And dear Lord, help Kurt to know that he should not put frogs in the pockets of new governesses. Please Lord, forgive Kurt."

This sort of hidden agenda, "passive aggressive" praying elicits a gentle smile in the movie. It is, however, generally considered bad form for those of us who are called upon to pray publicly. For example, if I knew the person were present, it really would be inappropriate for me to pray publicly: "Dear Lord, please forgive the person who still has not returned the Sound of Music DVD to the Flossmoor Public Library even though it was due May 5^th. I am sure this person (whomever they are) did not consider that someone else might want it. Please be merciful to them, O Lord."

It would also probably be considered bad form for me to pray out loud: "Dear Lord, please look gently upon all those people who did not offer you worship on glorious day of your Ascension and do not judge them harshly. Some had very real excuses. But for those many who did not… I am sure they just did not consider that it is you, gentle Lord and Savior, to whom they were indifferent. Dear Lord, you know (!) that I do not wish to hear from them. But I do pray that you will hear them and be merciful when they come to you, Lord Jesus, grieving and seeking forgiveness for their indifference."

Bad form. This sort of public praying with an agenda. Passive aggressive and manipulative. Except when it is Jesus doing the praying. Then it’s revelation. Then it is God’s true Word given voice in the world. Jesus, praying to God within the disciples’ hearing, says: "There will be others who will believe in me through their word." Yes, the disciples are indirectly being given a very clear charge within the context of Jesus’ prayer. But these words are also the revealing of God’s vision and will for the future. There will be others who will believe. There will be a Christian church in the centuries to come. Jesus’ ministry will not end with his crucifixion or with his ascension. There will be others who will believe. The Word of the Lord can and will be shared and spread by mere mortals. There will be others who will come to believe through the words and actions of the disciples. This revelation… this assurance… is Jesus’ word, spoken in prayer to God. There will be others who will come to believe. Beyond the disciples who walked with Jesus, who spoke with Jesus, who touched and knew Jesus before his ascension. Beyond those, there will be others who will come to believe through the words of Jesus’ followers.

We are some of them. We are some of those who have come to believe through the words of others. Jesus was the Word of God made flesh. After Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension that Word of God continued and continues to be spoken.

Paul and Silas spoke God’s Word. Evidently they spoke so compellingly of Jesus and his love that Romans were drawn to belief and to worship God even in defiance of Roman law. The Book of Acts is full of stories of the disciples’ words and actions spoken on behalf of Christ. And of the thousands upon thousands who came to believe through their words.

There will be others, Jesus says; after my death and resurrection and ascension, there will be others who will come to believe. There will be others who will come to believe in me through the words of my disciples.

Who spoke those words to you? Through whom did you come to believe? Who spoke the Word of the Lord to you, so that you might come to believe in God’s love for you? This last Sunday of Easter is a good time to give thanks. To celebrate all these saints of light who surround us in these glorious windows each Sunday. They passed on the Word. They shared their faith. By their words they brought Jesus’ revelation into their worlds. There will be others who will believe, Jesus says. And they, in turn, will, by their words, bring others to faith. Who spoke the Word of God’s love to you? What friend, parent, Sunday School teacher, voice from the pulpit, voice on the radio… what humble disciple of Christ shared the Word of the Lord with you? Speaking to your heart so that you might come to believe? Thanks be to God for all of those voices.

And to whom have you spoken? To whom will you speak so that there will continue to be others who will come to believe? Like the disciples, we are present today to hear Jesus’ prayer, spoken in communion with the Father. Jesus’ assurance, Jesus’ expectation, Jesus’ revelation, that Jesus’ disciples will bring others to belief. We are those disciples today. Our words can and will be the words that will bring others to believe. This is Jesus’ ongoing promise and revelation.

And the words to speak are those same words that Jesus said to his disciples. The other phrase to hold on to from this morning’s Gospel. "Father, you have loved them even as you have loved me. I pray that the love with which you have loved me may be in them." God loves you, Jesus said to Peter and Nathaniel and Matthew and James and John and the other James and all the disciples… God loves you as dearly and as closely as God loves me, his only Son.

We are beloved of God. From before the foundations of the earth, Jesus says. Beyond all measure, beyond any deserving, without qualification. We are welcomed and enfolded into God’s love as fully as Jesus’ himself is. And it is Jesus himself who reaches out to us, in the words of his prayer this morning, in the offering of his life for us on the cross, in the grace-filled communion of his true presence shared at this holy table, in the healing hope of the Holy Spirit that dwells every moment in our hearts, in the living vitality of the Word of the Lord, spoken and heard. Thank God that, through the words of others, we have come to believe. And praise God that, through our words, more will come to belief and know the love of God for them.